Department for Transport

Transport

lord forsyth of drumlean: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Sugg on 18 December (HL12286), what steps they are taking to improve transport connectivity between the regions and nations of the UK; and how those steps relate to the allocation of landing slots at UK airports.

baroness sugg: The government recognises how important transport networks, including regional airport connectivity, can be to their local areas and surrounding regions. The Aviation Strategy Green Paper ‘Aviation 2050’, has renewed the government’s commitment to support routes into London that may be at risk, commercially, through the establishment of Public Service Obligations (PSOs). The paper also considers what further role the government should have in supporting growth at our regional airports. In addition, the government has set out a clear ambition that at least 14 domestic routes operate from an expanded Heathrow Airport. The Green Paper has identified how Heathrow, with the support of government if needed, can make this happen. The government is also seeking views on reforming the process for allocating new slots in the Green Paper, with the objectives of facilitating competition and increasing both domestic and international connectivity.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Italy: Immigration

lord hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will raise Italy's current policy of ending humanitarian protection for migrants, of limiting access to reception centres, and of accepting the existence of undocumented workers liable to exploitation, both bilaterally withthe government ofItaly and within the EU Council of Ministers.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: Human rights, including the protection of migrants is a UK foreign policy priority. As part of our bilateral relationship with Italy, we discuss migration and humanitarian issues at both ministerial and official level, work with the Italian government on sharing best practice to stop labour exploitation, and where we have concerns raise them with the appropriate authority. The British Government continues to discuss the issue of migration with the EU.

Greek Islands: Migrant Camps

lord hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will ensurethatBritish embassy staff or seconded officials visit the refugee camps on the islands of Samos and Lesbos in Greece to assess overcrowding and general conditions in those camps.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: ​British Embassy staff and seconded officials from other Government Departments, including the Home Office, have frequently visited the Greek islands most affected by migration to assess conditions in the camps since the EU/Turkey statement was agreed in March 2016. The most recent visit to Samos was on 21 November 2018 and the most recent visit to Lesvos was on 6 December 2018.

Burma: Human Rights

lord alton of liverpool: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the imprisonment of three Kachin activists in Burma for six months for peaceful protest and calling for humanitarian assistance for civilians trapped in the conflict in northern Burma.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: Our Ambassador to Burma met Zau Jat, Nang Pu and Lum Zawng during his more recent visit to Kachin in early December 2018. They had organised public demonstrations in Myitkyina under the banner of the 'Kachin Youth Movement' and held a press conference calling for an end to the conflict and escape routes for civilians. Following their 7 December conviction on the charge of defamation of the Burmese military, the Minister for Asia and the Pacific and our Embassy in Burma issued statements expressing deep concern and disappointment, and urging the Burmese authorities to protect freedom of speech in line with international norms.

Cuba: Religious Freedom

lord alton of liverpool: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the sufficiency of protections for freedom of religion or belief in Cuba, and (2) the proposal to remove the right to freedom of conscience from Cuba's constitution; and whether they intend to raise such issues with the government of Cuba.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: ​Protection for freedom of religion or belief and of conscience in Cuba is covered under Article 55 of the Cuban constitution. The current draft of the new constitution addresses freedom of religion in Articles 15 and 62 and freedom of conscience is now covered by Article 59. In spite of constitutional protections, we remain concerned about religious freedom given that religious expression is closely regulated and violations against freedom of religion or belief still occur in Cuba. We hope more will be done to ensure these rights are protected. The UK will continue to monitor human rights in Cuba and address concerns through bilateral engagement with Cuba and multilateral human rights fora.

Syria: Armed Conflict

baroness cox: To ask Her Majesty's Government which (1) organisations, (2) opposition groups, and (3) local councils, active in the jihadi-controlled parts of Syria, currently provide (a) humanitarian, and (b) military assistance.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: We understand there are over 100 local and international non-governmental organisations providing humanitarian assistance in Syria, some of whom operate in areas of north-west Syria controlled by Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), a proscribed terrorist organisation. We are not aware of any organisations, opposition groups or local councils providing military assistance in HTS-controlled areas or providing humanitarian or military assistance in the remaining area controlled by Daesh.

Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation Conference: British Council

baroness deech: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment, if any, they have made of the adequacy of the investigation carried out by the British Council when it decided to continue to sponsor the Recognition Reparation Reconciliation conference, held on 5 December at Stellenbosch University, after Israeli and Palestinian academic contributors were caused to withdraw.

baroness deech: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment, if any, they have made of the adherence of the British Council to the Equality Act 2010 and to the principle of the universality of science in its sponsorship of the Recognition Reparation Reconciliationconference, held on 5 December at Stellenbosch University, from which Israeli and Palestinian academic contributors were caused to withdraw.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: We have not made any assessment of these issues. We understand the British Council, an executive non-departmental public body that is independent from the British Government, was not a sponsor of the conference and its support was to enable UK-based academics to attend the conference and share their experience of the Northern Irish Peace Process and its impact. The British Government’s position on boycotts is clear. While we do not hesitate to express disagreement with Israel whenever we feel it necessary, we are firmly opposed to boycotts. We believe that imposing sanctions on Israel or supporting anti-Israeli boycotts would not support our efforts to progress the peace process and achieve a negotiated solution.

Saudi Arabia: Females

baroness hodgson of abinger: To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Saudi Arabia about reports from Human Rights Watch that women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia have been tortured, sexually harassed and assaulted in prison.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: The British Government is very concerned about the reports that women's rights activists have been subject to torture during pre-trial detention in Saudi Arabia. We consistently and unreservedly condemn torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and it is a priority for us to combat this wherever and whenever it occurs. We have raised concerns about these cases at Ministerial level a number of times with the Saudi authorities and will do so again following these allegations.

Iran: Sanctions

the lord bishop of leeds: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any impact of the reintroduction of sanctions on Iran by the United States on refugee and migration flows from Iran.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: The second set of US unilateral sanctions on Iran came into full force on 5 November. We consider it is therefore too soon to be able to fully assess the impact of the reintroduction of these sanctions on refugee and migration flows from Iran. However, Iran continues to be a significant source of migrants to the UK. Its economy has suffered from high inflation and a significant decline in the currency value this year.

Iran: Sanctions

the lord bishop of leeds: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact that the reintroduction of sanctions on Iran by the United States has had on countries neighbouring Iran.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: We continue to assess the impact of US sanctions as they come into force, including the impact of the various exemptions granted by the US. We expect wide-ranging impact, including on trade, infrastructure projects, payment for services and tourism. Given Iran is a major energy supplier, we can expect some countries to diversify. Her Majesty's Government is committed to maintaining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and as part of this we continue to support legitimate trade with Iran in line with sanctions relief.

Tunisia: Politics and Government

the marquess of lothian: To ask Her Majesty's Government what current assistance they are providing to Tunisia to assist the transition to democracy and to promote stability, particularly in view of the number of highly educated and skilled workers who have left the country since 2011 and the fact that Tunisia remains a contributor of foreign fighters to IS.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: ​We are supporting Tunisia with more than £10 million of programme funding this year, including support on the rule of law, access to justice and strengthening democratic and judicial institutions. Successful municipal elections in May were an important milestone in Tunisia's transition, but it is vital that the Tunisian Government continues to prioritise the development of independent democratic institutions, particularly the establishment of a Constitutional Court. The International Development Secretary, Penny Mordaunt, the Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, and I have visited Tunisia this year to reinforce this message and to underline the UK's continued support.

British Overseas Territories: Companies

baroness stern: To ask Her Majesty's Government what technical assistance will be provided to the British Overseas Territories to support the introduction of public registers of beneficial ownership, as established by section 51 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: ​I announced at the Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council the setting up of technical workshops between the UK and the British Overseas Territories that will be scheduled from spring next year to support the introduction of public registers of company beneficial ownership.

British Overseas Territories: Companies

baroness stern: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much financial assistance will be provided to each British Overseas Territory to support the introduction of public registers of beneficial ownership, as established by section 51 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018.

lord ahmad of wimbledon: ​The British Government is considering what financial support is possible for the Official Development Assistance-eligible territories to support the introduction of public registers of company beneficial ownership.

Department for Exiting the European Union

Brexit

lord pearson of rannoch: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they consider theDraft Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, published on 14 November, to be binding on future UK governments.

lord callanan: Both the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration have now been agreed and endorsed by leaders of the 27 Member States. The Prime Minister’s agreement to the deal on behalf of the Government is a firm commitment, subject to ratification.Once the vote on the final deal has taken place, the UK and the EU will then formally sign the Withdrawal Agreement which, after ratification on both sides, will enter into force as a legally binding international treaty. The UK has always been a country which honours its international obligations.

Department of Health and Social Care

Medical Equipment: Malaysia

lord beecham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to investigate claims of exploitative employment practices by Malaysian manufacturers of medical gloves for use by the NHS.

lord o'shaughnessy: In line with the Government’s policy and leadership on modern slavery, the Department take any allegations of this kind very seriously and we are working with NHS Supply Chain to ensure that these issues are investigated as a matter of urgency.

Alcoholic Drinks: Consumption

baroness hayter of kentish town: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase awareness of the Chief Medical Officers' low-risk drinking guidelines following the findings in the report by the Alcohol Health Alliance,How we drink, what we think: Public views on alcohol and alcohol policies in the UK,published on 4 December,that only 19 per cent of people know the guidelines.

baroness hayter of kentish town: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their forthcomingAlcohol Strategy will include a commitment to require cancer warnings on alcohol labels,followingthe findings in the report by the Alcohol Health Alliance,How we drink, what we think: Public views on alcohol and alcohol policies in the UK,published on 4 December, that the majority of people support such a requirement.

lord o'shaughnessy: In March 2017, the Department issued guidance to the alcohol industry setting out how the guidelines can best be communicated on the labels of alcoholic drinks. The Department agreed a transitional period with the industry until 1 September 2019 to reflect the new guidelines on labelling.The Government currently has no plans to include a commitment in the Alcohol Strategy to issue cancer warnings on alcohol labels. The UK Chief Medical Officers’ Low Risk Drinking Guidelines highlight that the risk of developing a range of health problems, including cancer, increases the more you drink on a regular basis. Information on the low risk guidelines is also available online.

Alcoholic Drinks: Prices

baroness hayter of kentish town: To ask Her Majesty's Government how their forthcoming alcohol strategy will address the increased affordability of alcohol.

lord o'shaughnessy: The Department of Health and Social Care and Home Office officials are continuing to hold discussions on the development of a new joint alcohol strategy and further announcements will be made in due course.

Severe Combined Immunodeficiency

baroness masham of ilton: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to make funding available to implement the UK National Screening Committee's recommendation of 2017 to undertake a practical evaluation of new born screening for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease in the NHS.

lord o'shaughnessy: The UK National Screening Committee completed a public consultation on 4 November 2017 on whether a proposal for a practical evaluation of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) was supported. It has since recommended a practical evaluation of SCID screening to be undertaken in the National Health Service. This evaluation will be considered as part of the 2019/20 funding decisions.

Mental Health Services: Children and Young People

lord oates: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding they have provided to children and adolescent mental health services in each year since 2010.

lord o'shaughnessy: The following table shows expenditure on children and young people’s mental health services from 2013/14 to 2017/18. Information on expenditure for 2012-13 and earlier is not available.  2013/142014/152015/162016/172017/18Clinical commissioning group spendN/AN/A£516 million£619 million£687 millionSpecialised commissioning spend£252 million£260 million£319 million£342 million£361 millionTotal spendN/AN/A£836 million£961 million£1,048 millionSource: NHS EnglandThe 2019 Budget confirmed that the National Health Service will continue to increase mental health investment, by at least £2 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24.

Home Care Services: Living Wage

lord wills: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord O'Shaughnessy on 22 November (HL11744), what assessment they have made of whether local authorities are complying with guidelines to ensure that home care workers are paid the national living wage for travelling between appointments.

lord o'shaughnessy: The Department has made no assessment itself. However, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs deals with complaints about underpayment of the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage. It has worked with other agencies and departments to raise awareness of the rules and has undertaken targeted enforcement to ensure that workers are paid what they are legally owed.

Mental Health Services: Schools

lord brooke of alverthorpe: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their report Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2017, published on 22 November, what assessment they have made of the roll out of Designated Senior Leads and mental health support teams; and what timetable has been set for the roll out of those initiatives to all schools in England.

lord o'shaughnessy: We remain committed to rolling out our new approach as set out in the Green Paper on children and young people’s mental health, including creating Designated Senior Leads in schools and new mental health support teams, to at least a fifth to a quarter of the country by the end of 2022/23. The first wave of trainees who will staff the mental health support teams start training in January 2019. The first wave of mental health support teams will be fully operational by the end of 2019.We will test and pilot the implementation of the Green Paper plans to ensure we learn as we go. Data about the prevalence of mental health conditions in Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2017 will be used as part of the evidence base to inform all planning and activity around children and young people’s mental health, including the roll-out of the Green Paper plans. The precise roll-out will also be informed by the evaluation of the initial trailblazers.

Dental Health: Older People

lord colwyn: To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to improve the oral health of those over 65.

lord o'shaughnessy: In England, local authorities are responsible for assessing oral health needs and improving the oral health of their local population including those over the age of 65.To support local authorities in this role Public Health England (PHE) published Commissioning better oral health for vulnerable older people: An evidence-informed toolkit for local authorities which gives an overview of the impact of oral diseases in vulnerable older people and presents the evidence of what works to improve their oral health. The toolkit for local authorities is attached. It is supported by an evidence review and a resource compendium to support oral health improvement of vulnerable older people in all settings.



HL12180 attached document
(PDF Document, 813.12 KB)

Dental Services

lord colwyn: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the forthcoming Green Paper on adult social care will include proposals to improve dental care for those living in residential care homes and supported housing.

lord o'shaughnessy: While we are currently unable to confirm exact details of the Green Paper, NHS England has a legal duty to commission National Health Service dental services to meet local need including people living in care homes.The forthcoming Green Paper will be based on a number of principles including whole-person, integrated care with the NHS and social care systems operating as one.The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Oral health in care homes quality standard provides guidance to care home staff on assessing the oral health needs of patients on admission and advises on the need for residents to be helped to find a dentist if they do not already have one. A copy of the quality standard is attached.



HL12181 attached document
(PDF Document, 104.38 KB)

Dental Health: Surveys

lord colwyn: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect the next Adult Dental Health Survey to take place.

lord o'shaughnessy: Timing of the next Adult and Child Dental Health Survey has yet to be confirmed.

Dental Services: Older People

lord colwyn: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to include in the quarterly NHS Dental Statistics for England the proportion of adults aged 65 and over who have visited an NHS dentist in the previous 24 months.

lord o'shaughnessy: NHS Digital publishes quarterly information on the number of adults who have seen a National Health Service dentist in the previous 24 months and children who have seen an NHS dentist in the previous 12 months.There are no current plans to change the age breakdown of the data that is routinely published.

Genito-urinary Medicine: Finance

baroness tonge: To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of councils that have reduced or plan to reduce their budgets for sexual and reproductive health services; and what assessment they have made of the impact of any such reductions on women of reproductive age living in affected areas.

baroness tonge: To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of local councils that have reduced the number of sites commissioned to deliver contraceptive services; and what assessment they have made of the impact of any such reductions.

lord o'shaughnessy: Data collected on sexual health expenditure by local authority as part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government General Fund Revenue Account Outturn data on Social Care and Public Health service spend show that 94 of the 152 local authorities spent less on sexual health services in 2017-18 than in 2016-17.Returns from the Sexual and Reproductive Health Activity Dataset (SRHAD) data show that in 2017-18, there was a reduced number of services in 49 local authority areas compared to 2016-17. Other services may provide contraception but not complete a SRHAD return. Ongoing reconfiguration of individual sexual and reproductive health services can vary which means that reduction in number of services need not necessarily equate to reduction in overall provision. Contraception is also widely available free of charge through general practice. No assessment has been made on the impact of these changes.The Government has mandated local authorities in England to commission comprehensive open access sexual health services, including advice on, and reasonable access to, a broad range of contraceptive substances and appliances. It is for local authorities to assess and understand local needs, including assessing the impact locally of reductions due to service reconfiguration, and determine how funding is spent to deliver services that meet those needs.

Social Services: Pay

baroness jolly: To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they provide to local authorities about the payment of sleep-in shifts; and whether any such guidance has been updated following the ruling by the Court of Appeal in Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake and Shannon v Rampersad [2018] EWCA Civ 1641.

baroness jolly: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that social care providers and staff are not penalised financially if local authorities decide to reduce the fees at which they commission future sleep-in shifts.

lord o'shaughnessy: Updated Government guidance National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage: Calculating the minimum wage was published on 8 November setting out the implications for paying workers for sleep-in shifts following the ruling by the Court of Appeal in Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake and Shannon v Rampersad. The Government sent advance notice of the publication to local government representatives. A copy of the guidance is attached.The Government is sending a clear message that the judgment should not be used as an opportunity to make ad-hoc changes to the fees paid to providers. Commissioners and providers should be working together to determine a fair rate of pay for sleep-in shifts to fit their local labour market conditions.The Government has given councils access to up to £3.6 billion more, dedicated for adult social care in 2018-19 and up to £3.9 billion for 2019-20. Overall, councils are able to increase spending on adult social care by 9% in real terms from 2015/16 to 2019/20. The Government encourages employers to pay more than the minimum wage wherever possible but recognises that employers’ ability to do so will depend on a range of factors.



HL12243,HL12244 attached document
(PDF Document, 462.77 KB)

Speech and Language Disorders: Children and Young People

lord ramsbotham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to develop a clear definition of joint commissioning for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs; and what discussions they have had with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and I CAN on that issue.

lord o'shaughnessy: There are currently no plans to introduce a single model of joint commissioning for children and young people with speech, communication and language needs. However, we monitor the effectiveness of local joint arrangements via a rolling programme of inspections by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission. These began in 2016, and over five years, will visit every local area, and assess how well commissioners work together to support children and young people with special educational needs.The Government is working with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and I CAN through the Expert Advisory Group established by Public Health England and the Department for Education, as part of the latter’s Social Mobility Action Plan for Education, ‘Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential’.A model speech, language and communication pathway for services for children aged 0-5 years, built on the best evidence and experience of implementation in practice, is currently in development. This will encourage joint commissioning and service provision.

Mental Health Services: Children and Young People

lord ramsbotham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that speech and language therapists are included in the trailblazer areas anticipated in the Green PaperTransforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision, published on 25 July.

lord o'shaughnessy: We will seek to use the trailblazer programme as the opportunity to link mental health support teams within schools and colleges, with the range of professionals already working with young people, including speech and language therapists where appropriate. The design of the new mental health support teams should in particular enable better joint working between health and education services, as well as working with other services.

Speech and Language Disorders

lord ramsbotham: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 5 June (HL8079) on speech and language disorders, when NHS England’s review of the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool will be completed; and whether the findings of that review will be made publicly available.

lord o'shaughnessy: The Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool Quality Assurance Audit is due to complete by the end of January 2019. It was commissioned as an internal review by NHS England to support their functioning as a commissioner and as such will not be published.

Contraceptives

baroness tonge: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions, and with whom, they have had about councils being unable to provide accurate data on funding for contraceptive services.

lord o'shaughnessy: No discussions have been held about councils being unable to provide accurate data on funding for contraceptive services. Data on local authority expenditure on contraception is reported to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as part of General Fund Revenue Account Outturn data on Social Care and Public Health service spend. Public Health England works with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to validate the data reported by local authorities before publication.

Speech Therapy: Children and Young People

lord shinkwin: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they plan to have with NHS Clinical Commissioners about ensuring that speech and language therapy service specifications (1) require speech and language therapy services to have a pathway for when a child or young person is not brought to an appointment, including for children and young people who are known to be at higher risk of poorer outcomes or safeguarding issues, (2) ensure and appropriately resource speech and language therapy services to provide support in settings that meet the needs of the children or young people and their parents and carers, and (3) monitor and report on the number of children and young people who are discharged from speech and language therapy services because they were not brought to an appointment.

lord o'shaughnessy: We have no plans at present to hold discussions with NHS Clinical Commissioners concerning speech and language therapy service specifications. Clinical commissioning groups have responsibility for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population, drawing on National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance to agree the specifications for communication support. The protection and safeguarding of children and young people from harm is of paramount importance to all parts for the health care system. All providers should have their own governance arrangements in place for responding to non-attendance at appointments.

NHS: Negligence

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have undertaken forward planning or modelling to estimate the cost of clinical negligence claims in the period to 2020–21.

lord o'shaughnessy: NHS Resolution handles clinical negligence claims on behalf of National Health Service organisations and independent sector providers of NHS care in England.NHS Resolution annually reviews and updates five-year forecasts for the cost of clinical negligence following an actuarial review of activity and key assumptions that underpin those costs, e.g. claims inflation, claims volumes. These key assumptions are published in the organisation’s Annual Report and Accounts. Clinical negligence costs relate to four indemnity schemes operated by NHS Resolution: Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST), which covers NHS providers of secondary health care, and the Existing Liabilities, Ex-Regional Health Authorities, and the Department of Health and Social Care’s Clinical schemes, all of which relate to legacy organisations.The cost of clinical negligence claims covered by the figures in this response are damages, claimant legal costs, defence legal costs, and NHS Resolution’s administration costs. The costs reported here do not include costs incurred locally by NHS providers in dealing with claims, such as their own administration costs.NHS Resolution’s Statement of Net Expenditure estimates costs of clinical negligence at £11.7 billion in its 2020-21 accounts. This the total of the two dimensions in relation to “costs” in the context of Government budgeting:- Department Expenditure Limit costs – these are the costs of settling claims during the financial year and the administration of those claims. This is estimated to be £2.6 billion for 2020-21; and- Annually Managed Expenditure costs – this is the change in the value of the liability arising from clinical negligence claims, both from those that have been received, and those that are expected to be received in relation to incidents up to 31 March 2021. This is estimated to be £9.1 billion for 2020-21. The costs for 2020-21 have been estimated on the basis of the current personal injury discount rate of minus 0.75%. However, once the Civil Liability Bill becomes law, the Lord Chancellor is expected to review the rate promptly. The figures provided here may therefore, change as a result. NHS Resolution will also review its five-year forecasts again following the production of its 2018-19 Annual Report and Accounts, and any changes in the underpinning actuarial assumptions are likely to result in revised projections. The figures quoted should therefore be considered as broad estimates based on the latest available information and subject to change in the future.Notes:The Department Expenditure Limit costs are lower than the £3.2 billion costs for CNST only reported by the National Audit Office in their report Managing the costs of clinical negligence in trusts, published in September 2017. The £3.2 billion represents the 2016 forecast for CNST based on a personal injury discount rate of 2.5%. Actuarial reviews of assumptions undertaken by NHS Resolution in 2017 and 2018 have resulted in favourable movements in key assumptions.The figures provided do not include claims brought against general practitioners, who are covered by separate indemnity arrangements through medical defence organisations and for which data is not centrally available.

Liothyronine

lord hunt of kings heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to negotiate a reduction of the cost of liothyronine (T3) for use in primary care.

lord o'shaughnessy: Liothyronine is an unbranded generic medicine. The Department encourages competition between suppliers of unbranded generic medicines to keep prices down. This generally works well and has led to some of the lowest prices in Europe.Concerns about anti-competitive behaviour are a matter for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate. Liothyronine, marketed by Concordia, is currently the subject of an investigation by the CMA, which has provisionally found that Concordia abused its dominant position to overcharge the National Health Service by millions for liothyronine tablets. A provisional decision does not necessarily lead to an infringement decision. Where companies have breached competition law, the Department will seek damages and invest that money back into the NHS.The Department also has its own powers to limit prices of unbranded generic medicines and will consult early in 2019 with the relevant industry bodies on implementation of those powers.

DeepMind

lord scriven: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 6 December (HL11728), what explanation they have received regarding Google’s plans for DeepMind Health; what assurances they have received that data transferred as part of the integration of DeepMind Health into Google cannot be used by any Google subsidiary; and whether the adequacy of these any arrangements in this regard will be independently verified.

lord o'shaughnessy: We have sought reassurance that none of the current contracts with National Health Service trusts will be transferred to Google, and any changes will require the agreement of the trusts. The patient data processed for Streams will remain controlled by the trusts, and will not be used for any purpose other than the provision of direct patient care, as specified in existing agreements.We are working with DeepMind and Google as they consider how to provide assurance on the use of patient data as Streams grows into a global product. The Code of Conduct for Data Driven Technologies sets out the principles that we expect NHS trusts and industry partners to follow.

NHS: Negligence

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 13 December (HL12091), how much of their total spend on clinical negligence legal defence costs in (1) 2016–17, and (2) 2017–18, was used for (a) NHS Resolution services, and (b) external solicitors including disbursements.

lord o'shaughnessy: NHS Resolution has advised that the figures provided for legal defence costs in my Written Answer of 13 December were for external solicitors including disbursements.NHS Resolution has provided the following table which shows its own administration costs for dealing with clinical negligence claims in 2016/17 and 2017/18.  Admin Costs £000s2017/1811,6342016/179,982

Maternity Services: Fathers

lord alton of liverpool: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Centre for Social Justice Testing Times: Supporting fathers during the perinatal period and early parenthood, published on 16 December; and in particular its findings that (1) inspection frameworks related to maternity services, Health Visitors, and Children’s Centres contain few directreferences to “fathers”, (2) 69 per cent of new fathers thought that they “were made to feel like a ‘spare part’ during the pregnancy period”, and (3) 55 per cent of low income fathers said they were left to “pick it up themselves” compared to only 29 per cent of higher income fathers.

lord o'shaughnessy: The Department is aware of the Centre for Social Justice’s recent report into supporting fathers during the perinatal period and early parenthood, published in December 2018. The Department recognises the vital role fathers can often play during pregnancy and early years, as well as the fact that every family is different.We welcome the high levels of engagement fathers currently have with various aspects of the health service, as cited in the report, including the estimated 94% of new fathers that have attended one or more antenatal appointments, and almost all attending both ultrasound scans and the birth itself.The Maternity Transformation Programme is working to make maternity care more personalised including responding to the needs of fathers as well as mothers. Postnatal and perinatal mental health care, maternity care and personalised care plans are recognised as important for the whole family, including fathers, and they should therefore be involved where appropriate.Furthermore, the Healthy Child Programme states that the father’s contribution should be one of the key topics to be covered during a health and development review by a health visitor. It emphasises the importance of ensuring that contact with the family routinely involves and supports fathers, including non-resident fathers.

Nurses: Pay

baroness armstrong of hill top: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many NHS nurses in England earn less than £30,000 per year; and what proportion of all NHS nurses in England this represents.

lord o'shaughnessy: NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics for England. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), but not staff working in primary care or in general practitioner surgeries, local authorities or other providers.Nurses’ earnings are made up of basic pay plus, where applicable, unsocial hours payments, on call payments and high cost area supplements.The latest figures at June 2018 show that almost 60% of nurses receive unsocial hours payments in addition to their basic pay.The following table shows nurses and health visitors whose total annual earnings is under £30,000, in National Health Service trusts, CCGs, support organisations and central bodies in England, between 31 July 2017 and 30 June 2018, headcount and percentage: All nurses and health visitorsNurses and health visitors whose total annual earnings are under £30,000Proportion of nurses and health visitors whose total annual earnings are under £30,000258,676107,71541.6% These figures use the total annual earnings of staff which includes basic pay and non-basic pay elements. These total figures include staff working on a part time basis, who tend to have lower annual earnings than those on full time contracts.Basic pay data has been extracted at a point in time, whereas total earnings include data from staff working throughout the period. This explains the discrepancies in the total number of nurses and health visitors.

Social Services: Pay

baroness armstrong of hill top: To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of how many of those working in the social care sector in England earn less than £30,000 per year; and what proportion of all those working in that sector in England this represents.

lord o'shaughnessy: The data is not available in the format requested.

Nurses and Social Services: Pay

baroness armstrong of hill top: To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost of uprating the salaries of (1) NHS nurses, and (2) those working in the social care sector in England to £30,000 or more.

lord o'shaughnessy: The Department has made no estimate of the costs of uprating the salaries of National Health Service nurses and those working in the social care sector in England to £30,000 or more.

Prescriptions: Universal Credit

baroness lister of burtersett: To ask Her Majesty's Government when the FP10 prescription exemption form will be updated to include an exemption box for Universal Credit claimants entitled to free prescriptions; and what guidance they have provided to Universal Credit claimants claiming free prescriptionsbefore the updated form becoming available.

lord o'shaughnessy: Work is ongoing to update the FP10 prescription form, to include a new exemption tick box for use by Universal Credit claimants, at the earliest opportunity. In advance of this update Universal Credit claimants who meet the criteria for free National Health Service prescriptions, should tick box ‘K’ for income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Fertility: Medical Treatments

lord alton of liverpool: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to requirethe Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to ensure thatsignatures on consent forms for fertility treatments are witnessed when one parent is not present, in order to prevent forgery.

lord o'shaughnessy: The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has strengthened its requirements for how clinics should take consent from patients and partners in 2016.The new edition of the HFEA’s Code of Practice, to be published shortly, will provide further guidance on the processes clinics should have in place to ensure consent is informed, taken properly and given by the right person. The guidance states that consent should be given at the clinic, where possible, and where this is not possible, that there should be a documented process in place for ensuring consent has been given by the right person. In particular, clinics need to be satisfied about the patients’ legal relationships to each other and, where the partner of a patient has not visited the clinic or does not return for subsequent treatment, the clinic should take reasonable steps to find out if the partner still consents to treatment.

Mental Health Services

lord watts: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people arrested in England and Wales have been diverted to mental health services after an assessment by Liaison and Diversion teams in each year since such teams were established.

lord o'shaughnessy: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Department for International Development

Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

lord balfe: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to sign theUN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

lord bates: Well-managed migration is in everyone’s interests. But uncontrolled migration erodes public confidence, damages economies, and places those on the move in situations of great vulnerability. The UK is taking significant steps to tackle uncontrolled migration both in our domestic policy work and in our ODA-funded programmes by:Addressing the root causes of irregular migration, through our targeted assistance for livelihoods, healthcare, education and economic development;Tackling modern slavery and organised immigration crimeSupporting enhanced border managementProviding critical humanitarian support and protection for vulnerable migrants, as well as offering voluntary return and vital reintegration support to those wishing to return homeSupporting refugees to stay in a first safe country through our humanitarian and development work in Africa, the Middle East and Asia The UK Government is supportive of the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The Compact is one way in which we are working to ensure that UK migration priorities are embedded throughout the international system. It is a step forward in international co-operation to tackle irregular migration and helpful framework to help us deliver our commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals.The Compact is not legally binding. Instead, it creates a framework that will allow countries to work together to make migration more beneficial for everyone. It protects every State’s right to determine its own immigration policies, including in areas such as asylum, border controls and returns of illegal migrants.My colleague, the Right Hon. Alistair Burt MP, attended the formal intergovernmental launch event in Marrakech on December 10.

Syria: Politics and Government

baroness cox: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Bates on 5 December (HL Deb, cols 1014–16) that “there cannot be a meaningful discussion about how to begin the reconstruction, because that requires a government we can deal with, and we do not have one at the moment”, whether they are seeking regime change in Syria.

lord bates: Syria needs an inclusive government that can protect the rights of all Syrians and unite the country. We are pragmatic about how this can be achieved, and ultimately Syria’s future must be for Syrians to decide. We continue to support the UN-led Geneva process which remains the best forum for reaching a lasting political settlement to end the conflict in Syria.

Syria: International Red Cross

baroness cox: To ask Her Majesty's Government what funding, if any, they intend to provide to support water and sanitation projects by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Syria.

lord bates: The UK is funding UN and NGO partners to address vital water, hygiene and sanitation needs throughout Syria. Last year alone, our support meant that over 4 million people across Syria were provided with clean drinking water and over 2.5 million people with sanitation and hygiene assistance. DFID is currently not funding the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria. This decision was taken following discussions with ICRC about DFID’s reporting and risk management requirements for partners operating in Syria.

Syria: Humanitarian Aid

baroness cox: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether theywill urge the government of the United States to use its Al Tanf airbase in Syria to provide assistance to the thousands of displaced persons living in the Rukban Camp; and whether they will call on the governments of Syria and Jordan to help.

lord bates: The UK remains immensely concerned by the ongoing situation in the Rukban camp. We have continued to publicly highlight the need for sustained humanitarian access to reach the estimated 41,000 people in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Aid delivered by road, by trusted humanitarian partners, including the UN and other NGO partners, is assessed as the best way to deliver aid to hard-to-reach areas such as the Rukban camp. We welcomed the successful interagency convoy that delivered life-saving aid to the camp last month. It is crucial that this is not viewed as a one-off event. We urge the Assad regime and its allies, in the strongest possible terms, to ensure there is now regular humanitarian access to the camp. We also welcome Jordan’s support in providing water to Rukban; maintaining access to the UN clinic in Rukban; and assisting with emergency medical cases.

Africa: Climate Change

lord oates: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding they have allocated to tackle the impact of climate changeon Africa in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

lord bates: The UK has committed to spend £5.8 billion to tackle climate change in developing countries over the five years 2016/17 to 2020/21, which follows delivery of the commitment to £3.87 billion for the previous five years 2011/12 to 2015/16. The UK’s International Climate Finance (ICF) is delivered through a range of channels, only some of which can be directly attributed to specific countries or regions each year. Our bilateral spend directly attributable to African countries and regions in the last five years is shown below: 2013/142014/152015/162016/172017/18UK ICF directly attributable to Africa countries and regions£87m£134m£309m£364m£313m The UK also delivers a number of centrally managed programmes which operate across a range of developing countries but we cannot separate spending specifically benefitting African countries each year.In addition, the UK contributes to multilateral funds focused on tackling climate change. These are the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Details of our contribution and their commitments to African countries are as follows:The UK committed £1,988 million to the CIFs from 2009 to 2016, representing a 35% share. The CIFs have allocated $2,679 million (c£2,126 million) to projects in Africa over this period.The UK committed £720 million to the GCF from 2015 to 2018, which represented a 12% share of pledges made. The GCF has approved projects worth $1,161 million (c£921 million) in Africa during that period.The UK committed £210 million to the GEF’s 6th replenishment from 2014 to 2018, representing a 8.7% share. The GEF addresses climate change as well as broader environmental issues, and allocated projects worth $172 million (c£135 million) in Africa as part of its 6th replenishment.

Syria: Reconstruction

lord hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment theyhave made of the situation in Kobanî and neighbouring areas in Syria; and, in particular, (1) what proportion of the original population has been able to return from Turkey, and (2) what are the prospects of return for those still in Turkey; whether they plan to prioritise its reconstruction; and if so, how this is to be achieved.

lord bates: The humanitarian situation in Ain Al Arab sub-district, which includes Kobanî city, remains difficult, with over 50,000 people in acute need of assistance. The UK is supporting partners to deliver relief packages, food assistance, and livelihoods interventions.   Despite the challenging humanitarian environment, UN voluntary refugee return interviews indicate that over 20,000 Syrian refugees living in Turkey intended to return to Syria in 2018, with 1,585 expressing their intention to return to Ain Al Arab district. The UK is committed to ensuring that any refugee returns to Syria take place voluntarily and in line with international law. We will not support forced returns before Syria or parts of it are declared safe by the UN.  The UK will not consider providing any reconstruction assistance in Syria, including in Kobani, until a lasting political settlement to end the conflict and protect the rights of all Syrians is firmly underway. While the conflict is ongoing, we are focused on providing life-saving and life-changing support for millions of people across Syria. We remain the second largest bilateral donor to the humanitarian response in Syria since 2011 and have now committed £2.71 billion to the Syria Crisis to date.

Rwanda: Females

baroness tonge: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of Rwanda about its (1) funding of, (2) policies concerning, and (3) action to support activities relating to family planning and sexual and reproductive health and rights, and combat gender based violence.

lord bates: Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) works closely with the Government of Rwanda (GoR) on family planning and sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHRs). These are clear priorities for the GoR as illustrated by their hosting of the International Family Planning Conference last month. Rwanda has made significant progress in this area, achieving one of the fastest increases in the contraceptive prevalence rate in the world, from 10% to 45%, within a 5 year period. DFID support has included establishing a web-based SRHR information and counselling service for youth in refugee camps and empowering 90,000 adolescent girls through mentoring, including on SRHR. Combatting gender-based violence (GBV) is also a priority for the GoR. They are actively considering how to take forward a DFID-supported GBV prevention programme which reached almost 900,000 people.

Rwanda: Health Services

baroness tonge: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of Rwanda about its policies and legislation concerning (1) abortion, and (2) sexual and reproductive health and rights.

lord bates: Her Majesty’s Government works closely with the Government of Rwanda (GoR) and civil society organisations in Rwanda to increase dialogue and advocacy on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights issues. The legal framework in Rwanda allows for abortion in certain circumstances. In 2018, the GoR introduced a change to the penal code to allow physicians, rather than the courts, to approve the procedure for patients when the legal requirements are met. Family planning and SRH are clear priorities for the GoR as illustrated by their leadership in hosting the International Family Planning Conference last month.

Rwanda: Pregnancy

baroness tonge: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of Rwanda about improving maternal nutrition.

lord bates: Her Majesty’s Government works closely with the Government of Rwanda (GoR) on nutrition, which is a priority within Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation. Our work helped establish the Early Childhood Development Secretariat in the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion as the lead agency in charge of eliminating malnutrition, including in women of reproductive age. In collaboration with GoR and partners, we are implementing the Stunting Prevention and Reduction programme, which will reach 1.1 million women of reproductive age with high impact nutrition-specific interventions. We have also collaborated with the Ministry of Health to fund the distribution of fortified blended foods to pregnant and lactating women, and are working to deliver nutrition-related interventions to all adolescent girls and women of child bearing age.

Rwanda: Malnutrition

baroness tonge: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of Rwanda about combatting malnutrition in infants and children.

lord bates: Her Majesty’s Government works closely with the Government of Rwanda on nutrition, which is a priority within Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation. Our work helped establish the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Secretariat in the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion as the lead agency in charge of eliminating malnutrition, particularly stunting of children under five. We have also collaborated with the Ministry of Health to fund the distribution of fortified blended foods to pregnant and lactating women, and to children under 2. The Department for International Development (DFID)’s new programme on ECD will deliver parenting education on health and nutrition and is expected to prevent malnutrition for 260,000 children under three years of age. Overall, DFID programmes aim to reach 466,000 children under five with nutrition-related interventions.

Developing Countries: Abortion

baroness o'loan: To ask Her Majesty's Government in which countries where abortion is limited, highly restricted or prohibited they have funded initiatives aimed at legal and policy reform on abortion in each of the last seven years;what estimate they have made of how much of that funding has been spent on that issue in each of those countries; to which organisations in those countries they have provided such funding for that purpose; and how much money they have given to each of those organisations, and for what purpose.

lord bates: Our work on safe abortion policy reform is integrated into wider DFID programming and so it is not possible to disaggregate this information. DFID’s policy on safe abortion takes an evidence-based, public health approach that aims to reduce death and disability caused by unsafe abortions.

Developing Countries: Abortion

baroness o'loan: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they work with delivery partners in other countries that provide abortions which are illegal in those countries.

lord bates: DFID’s policy on safe abortion takes an evidence-based, public health approach that aims to reduce death and disability caused by unsafe abortions. In countries where abortion is highly restricted, we can help make the consequences of unsafe abortion more widely understood and can consider supporting policy reform. We do not undertake any activity that is against local laws.

Developing Countries: Abortion

baroness o'loan: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have made any estimate of the number of abortion procedures undertaken by Marie Stopes International and its international subsidiaries in 2017 that were funded by the UK taxpayer.

lord bates: DFID takes an integrated approach to our programming on sexual and reproductive health and rights in order to meet a wide range of women’s reproductive health needs - for example providing a woman with holistic care for gender-based violence, HIV, counselling, post-abortion care and information on family planning. Because these services are integrated, it is not possible to disaggregate figures solely relating to safe abortion procedures. The aim of DFID’s work on sexual and reproductive health and rights is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions, increase the use of voluntary family planning, and give women control over their own bodies and lives.

Marie Stopes International: Finance

baroness o'loan: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding they have provided to Marie Stopes International and any of its international subsidiaries for its work in countries outside the UK in each of the last 20 years.

lord bates: To date DFID has a grand total spend with Marie Stopes International of £241,162,224.57 as of financial year 2002/2003. Financial YearAmount2002/20032,979,222.002003/20041,683,992.002004/20051,698,460.002005/2006716,599.152006/20071,031,737.452007/2008900,853.002008/2009769,612.982009/2010639,915.312010/2011547,910.002011/20129,119,706.022012/201317,888,022.872013/201422,691,676.002014/201538,325,132.002015/201645,273,206.712016/201739,740,622.802017/201857,155,556.28Grand Total241,162,224.57

Marie Stopes International: Finance

baroness o'loan: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding they have committed to Marie Stopes International and any of its international subsidiaries in (1) 2018, (2) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, and (4) 2022.

lord bates: The Department for International Development’s budgets for future years have not been finalised. We expect to continue to fund Marie Stopes International (MSI) through a mix of central and country level programmes. For example, as part of our recently announced Women’s Integrated Sexual Health programme, MSI has been awarded a contract of £77 million for the period 2018-2021.

Kenya: Marie Stopes International

baroness o'loan: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) the government of Kenya, and (2) Marie Stopes International Kenya about the announcement by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Board that Marie Stopeshas been (a) directed immediately to cease offering any form of abortion services in all its facilities in Kenya, (b) instructed to review its existing Guidelines for Reproductive Health Services to ensure conformity with the law, and (c) admonished for contravening the Medical Practitioners and Dentists (Practitioners and Health Facilities) (Advertising) Rules 2016; and whether they intend to halt any funding provided to Marie Stopes International Kenya through Official Development Assistance as a result of that announcement.

lord bates: The British High Commissioner to Kenya has requested a meeting with the Kenya Cabinet Secretary of Health alongside representatives from a number of other governments, to discuss the ban. The Cabinet Secretary has indicated she will convene a meeting once an internal investigation into Marie Stopes Kenya’s activities reports to her office in December. DFID Kenya officials met the Country Director of Marie Stopes Kenya at the end of November to discuss the matter. DFID Kenya does not currently fund Marie Stopes Kenya.

Gaza: Health Services

baroness tonge: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to support the healthcare system in Gaza, particularly in relation to dealing with complex and serious gunshot wounds.

lord bates: DFID provided £1.5m in funding to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2018, supporting 11 hospitals across Gaza with surgical equipment, drugs and disposables, and wound-dressing kits. Our support to the ICRC also helps to provide rehabilitation services to 4,000 people with physical disabilities, and supports the Artificial Limb Centre in Gaza, helping individuals recover from the effects of complex and serious injuries.In the longer term, the UK is committed to a sustainable healthcare solution for the people of Gaza, which can only be achieved through a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Department for Education

Pupils: Personal Records

lord scriven: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 6 March 2017 (HL5596) and following the subsequent ending of the nationality and country of birth data collection from school children in autumn 2018, how schools and families can now retract such data submitted to the Department for Education.

lord agnew of oulton: The department collected data on the nationality, country of birth and proficiency in English of pupils via the school census between autumn 2016 and summer 2018. The data was collected for the purposes of educational research to help us understand the impact of migration on the school system. Understanding trends in migration, and the associated needs in the school system, helps us ensure that all children, wherever they are from, have the best possible education.The requirement for parents or guardians to provide information on their children’s nationality and country of birth was always optional and the school census guidance expected schools to ensure that they were made aware of their right to decline to provide this data. Guidance also advised schools to inform parents that if they wished to retract any nationality or country of birth information returned in a previous census, they should inform their school of this decision. This would then be transferred to the department which would remove from its systems information previously returned. As this data is no longer collected, the last opportunity for parents to retract this information was via the last collection in summer 2018.

Teachers: Pensions

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend toprovide extra funding for schools to assist with the increase in the Teachers' Pension Scheme contribution rate to 23.6 per cent from September 2019.

lord agnew of oulton: The department intends to fund state-funded schools, Independent Special Schools and Non-maintained Special Schools for the additional costs associated with changes to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme for financial year 2019-20, and will be consulting to understand the effects on other sectors. Funding from 2020-21 onwards will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.

Apprentices

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that they meet their target of creating three million apprenticeships by 2020.

lord agnew of oulton: In 2015, we set an ambitious goal of three million high quality apprenticeship starts, which remains our ambition. The government’s apprenticeship reforms are delivering high quality apprenticeships that will lead to a more skilled and productive economy. We will not sacrifice quality for quantity in creating these starts.Our reforms place employers at the heart of designing apprenticeships and the standards that they create are at the centre of our reforms to create a world-class system. The shift to higher quality standards with a longer average duration, together with the 20% off-the-job training requirement and the drop-off in frameworks, has already contributed to a 25% rise in expected apprenticeship training hours in the first half of 2017-18. In 2017-18, we saw the proportion of starts on new high quality standards rise to 44%, in comparison to just 5% in 2016-17. We also saw continued growth of apprenticeship starts at higher levels, from level 4 onwards, where starts increased by almost 32% in 2017-18 compared to 2016-17.We are working closely with employers to help them take advantage of these changes to grow their apprenticeship programmes and to contribute to meeting our target, backed by increased investment as announced in this year’s budget. We are reducing the apprenticeship co-investment rate from 10% to 5% in 2019. Also, from next year, large levy-paying employers will be able to transfer 25% of the funds entering their account each year to fund apprenticeships at other employers. By 2019-20, the annual spending on apprenticeships in England will reach £2.5 billion which, in monetary terms, is double what it was in 2010-11.To unlock these new apprenticeship starts, we are promoting apprenticeships to young people and their parents and teachers, as well as to prospective employers, to make sure that they are aware of the potential of apprenticeships to develop skills and to increase earnings and improve life chances.

City, University of London: Freedom of Expression

baroness deech: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with City, University of London about the cancellation of a planned speech by the Israeli Ambassador on 21 November; and whether they have received any representations from the Office for Students about freedom of speech at that University.

viscount younger of leckie: ​​Both the Department for Education (DfE) and Office for Students (OfS) were made aware of the decision to defer the planned speech by the Israeli Ambassador. The DfE’s Further Education/Higher Education coordinator has been in contact with the institution.​Freedom of speech is a crucial element of higher education and government and OfS are committed to championing it and to promoting open debate and challenge. Universities are autonomous bodies and are responsible for taking their own decisions around how to manage events and mitigate risks; handling of individual cases is not dictated by government or by the OfS. The OfS has powers to intervene if providers are not following their own free speech codes of practice

Universities: Freedom of Expression

baroness deech: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will issue guidance to universities on the misuse of data protection law and non-cooperation with security requirements in relation to upholding free speech.

viscount younger of leckie: The previous Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation held a free speech summit in May, where sector leaders agreed to collectively develop a single piece of guidance. The government has worked alongside sector leaders to set out key principles for universities and student unions managing free speech. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission will be publishing guidance in 2019 on how to ensure that freedom of speech within the law is upheld effectively in higher education institutions, whilst acknowledging their other legal duties.

Universities: Freedom of Expression

baroness deech: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of section 43 of the Education (No. 2) Act 1986 in upholding lawful freedom of speech on university campuses following the cancellation of a planned speech by the Israeli Ambassador at City, University of London on 21 November.

viscount younger of leckie: The government is deeply committed to protecting freedom of speech within the law. The freedom to express views openly, challenge ideas and engage in robust debate is crucial to the student experience and to democracy. Individuals should never be in a position where they can be stopped from expressing an opinion perfectly lawfully. Institutions are required to balance risks and legal obligations with a view to ensuring freedom of speech wherever reasonably practicable.The Joint Committee on Human Rights held an inquiry into freedom of speech in universities earlier this year, which looked in detail and collected evidence in relation to upholding freedom of speech in universities. Drawing on information from the inquiry, which found the current regulatory landscape protecting freedom of speech to be extremely complex, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and key partners in the higher education sector have worked with the Department of Education to develop a single piece of guidance, which will set out key principles. This guidance will enable universities and student unions to understand their obligations for protecting and supporting free speech.

Special Educational Needs

lord ramsbotham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the findings of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills in her 2017–18 Annual Report in relation to provision for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND); and what plans they have to improve (1) identification of SEND, and (2) outcomes for those who do not quite meet the threshold for an education, health and care plan.

lord agnew of oulton: We are grateful to Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills for her 2017 to 2018 Annual Report and will carefully consider the findings. Local area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspections and revisits carried out by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission are intended to support improvement and provide reassurance to families that areas will be held to account. They have become a significant driver of improvement in the system and have identified a number of strengths around identification of needs and support for those children without an education, health and care (EHC) plan. We are working with partners - including NHS England - to spread this effective practice more widely. The statutory SEND Code of Practice sets out high expectations of schools about how they identify and meet the special educational needs (SEN) of their pupils. This guidance is attached. We have made clear through the framework for initial teacher training (ITT) that it should equip trainees to identify the needs of all pupils and make provision for them, including seeking the advice of colleagues with specialist knowledge and experience. We are currently undertaking an audit of university-based and school-based providers of ITT which we will use to produce a best practice guide. Schools must ensure that staff can meet the needs of children with SEND, including those without EHC plans, as part of their approach to school improvement, professional development and performance management. All schools (including academies and free schools) must also have a SEN co-ordinator who must hold qualified teacher status and, where required, must achieve the master’s level national award in SEN co-ordination within three years of being appointed. We have a contract with the Whole School SEND Consortium, led by the National Association for SEN, to provide support to the SEND schools’ workforce. The consortium has produced resources and training to enable schools to review their SEND provision and to ensure they can identify and meet the needs of pupils effectively. Additionally, the department has funded a range of organisations to develop specialist resources and training to support teachers to identify and effectively meet the needs of pupils with autism; dyslexia and specific learning difficulties; speech, language and communication needs; sensory impairments and physical disabilities. All the materials funded by the department are hosted on the SEND gateway, an online portal which offers education professionals free, easy access to high quality information, resources and training for identifying and meeting the needs of children with SEND.



HL12253_SEND_Code_of_Practice
(PDF Document, 3.23 MB)

Alternative Education

lord shinkwin: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that children and young people who enter alternative education provision are assessed by a speech and language therapist to determine whether they have speech, language and communication needs.

lord agnew of oulton: The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice (2015) sets out high expectations of schools, alternative provision and colleges about how they identify and meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs (SEN), including those with speech, language and communication needs. The code emphasises that schools, including alternative provision, should work closely with their local authority and other providers to commission specialist services directly, such as speech and language therapists. This guidance is attached. The code is clear that schools should take appropriate steps to identify and address any learning difficulties presented by a child. The support that will be provided for children and young people with SEN entering alternative provision, with or without an education, health and care plan, should be agreed as part of the commissioning process. To allow for continuity of support, mainstream and alternative providers should promptly share appropriate information on a child or young person’s SEN.Commissioners of alternative provision should ensure that there is a clear plan for pupils’ progression and keep the arrangements under regular review so that they can be adapted in response to the needs of the child or young person. Where an alternative provider has concerns that a child or young person may have a speech and language difficulty that is not being appropriately supported, they should raise their concerns with the commissioner and agree how these potential needs will be assessed and supported.



HL12300_SEND_Code_of_Practice
(PDF Document, 3.23 MB)

Universities: Admissions

the lord bishop of winchester: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps the Office for Students is taking to encourage universities to use unconditional and other alternative offers to widen participation by minority groups including those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

viscount younger of leckie: ​Widening participation is a priority for this government. We want to ensure that everyone with the potential to benefit from a university education has the opportunity to do so, regardless of their background or where they grew up. Significant progress has been made in recent years; in 2018, 18-year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds were 52% more likely to enter full-time higher education than in 2009. However, we have made clear our expectation that the Office for Students (OfS) will challenge universities to make greater progress in widening access and participation. For example, we have asked the OfS to explore further the use of contextual information in university admissions, such as whether an applicant comes from a low participation neighbourhood or attends a school that does not send many students to university. ​We expect universities to use unconditional offers responsibly. There are cases where the use of unconditional offers can be justified, however the systematic use of unconditional offers is not in the interest of students.

Apprentices: Taxation

baroness garden of frognal: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to assess the operation of the Apprenticeship Levy.

baroness garden of frognal: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to make access to apprentice training and funding easier for businesses and the people the Apprenticeship Levy aims to support.

lord agnew of oulton: We introduced our reforms to put quality at the heart of the apprenticeships programme and to increase employer investment and engagement in training their workforces for the future. We continue to keep apprenticeships policy under constant review through regular contact with employers, providers, apprentices, end-point assessment organisations, external quality assurance providers and the Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA).As a result of this engagement, we have made changes to make sure that apprentice training and funding are accessible. These changes include increasing the amount of funds that levy-paying employers can transfer to other employers, from April 2019, from 10% to 25%. There are now over 380 apprenticeship standards approved in all sectors of the economy, and more are underway.We are providing extra funding for the IfA to introduce new standards. We are also updating existing ones so that more courses can be offered, meaning that there will be more choice for those considering their training options. Employers can access quality training through one of the many providers on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP). Following a review of the operation of the RoATP, we announced changes on 26 November which were designed to strengthen the application process and to raise the bar for entry.As my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced in his speech during the budget in October, we are additionally seeking views from a range of employers on the impact of the apprenticeship levy to date and the operation of the levy after 2020. As part of this work, we are holding a number of roundtables across the country with a cross-section of employers and training providers.

Apprentices: Construction

baroness garden of frognal: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many apprenticeships within the construction industry have been funded through the Apprenticeship levy.

lord agnew of oulton: There were 22,660 apprenticeship starts in the construction, planning and built environment sector subject area in the 2017-18 academic year. Of these, 7,520 (33.2%) were levy supported.

ICT: Vacancies

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that there are sufficient skilled workers to fill vacancies in the information and communications technology sector.

lord agnew of oulton: ​It is a key priority of this government to make sure that young people have the digital and computing skills needed for the future. In 2014 the government introduced a computing curriculum at all four key stages, which aims to ensure pupils understand the fundamental principles of computer science, including programming, coding and data representation. To improve the teaching of computing and drive up participation in computer science at GCSE and A level we launched a new National Centre for Computing Education, which is backed by £84 million of investment.Digital apprenticeships offer a route for further study and, from 2020, young people will also be able to study a Digital T level, which is based on employer designed standards and content. In addition, the government launched the Ada National College for Digital Skills which opened in 2016 and specialises in higher level training for digital specialisms. The government has also invested £20 million to establish the Institute of Coding, a consortium of more than 60 universities, businesses and industry experts set up to transform degree courses to boost the supply of digital specialists at graduate level.​To support our current workforce to upskill and retrain, particularly those whose jobs are most likely to be affected by automation and technological change, we are creating a new National Retraining Scheme. In the 2018 Autumn Budget, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced new government funding of £100 million for the continued testing and development of the scheme, with initial launch to the first users of the National Retraining Scheme in 2019.

Apprentices: Finance

lord watson of invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the adequacy of funding for apprenticeships.

lord watson of invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of funding for further education.

lord agnew of oulton: The departmental budget for spending on further education and apprenticeships in England from 2015-16 to 2019-20 was set initially in the 2015 Spending Review. Skills is a devolved matter and the funding for the devolved nations for the current spending review period was set at the same time. As with other areas of departmental spending, further education funding from 2020 onwards will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.The department has protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year olds for all types of providers until the end of the current spending review period in 2020. The department has been allocated £1.5 billion for the adult education budget for each year of the 2015 Spending Review period up to 2020, to engage adults and provide the skills and learning they need up to level 3 to equip them for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.Since 2016, the department has made over £330 million available to support major college restructuring, supporting significant improvements to financial sustainability in the sector. The department is currently considering the final applications for the restructuring facility and expect the final figure to rise significantly before the programme ends next year.The department is actively exploring the funding and resilience of further education and will be assessing how far existing and forecast funding and regulatory structures enable high quality provision. This work will align closely with the Post-18 Review in particular, to ensure a coherent vision for further and higher education.By 2019-20, the funding available for apprenticeships in England will have risen to over £2.5 billion, including the additional £115 million confirmed at Budget 2018. Spending on the apprenticeship programme is demand-led and employers can choose which apprenticeships they offer and at what level, how many and when. Further, levy paying employers have two years to spend the funds available to them in their apprenticeship service accounts.The department will publish details on further education and apprenticeship spending in our annual report and accounts as part of our normal financial reporting cycle. The department published 2017-18 spending in July and the annual report and accounts can be found on GOV.UK.

Students: Care Leavers

lord watson of invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they provide outside term-time to full-time higher education students who are care leavers without a permanent home, particularly over the Christmas holiday period.

viscount younger of leckie: As autonomous and independent organisations, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) determine what support services they provide to their students. Each institution will be best placed to identify the needs of their particular student body. The government places a high priority on how the particular needs of care leavers are addressed by HEIs. Many already provide all-year-round accommodation and bursaries for care leaver students. The Department for Education’s Guidance to the Office for Students (OfS), on completing 2019/20 access and participation plans, specifically identifies care leavers as a key target group whose needs HEIs should address. This is reflected in the OfS own guidance to the sector. The government recently launched the Care Leaver Covenant, which provides a way for organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors – including universities – to set out and publicise what support they provide to care leavers. A number of universities have already signed the Covenant, including Leeds, Liverpool John Moores, Huddersfield and Bradford; and we will continue to work closely with the OfS to encourage all universities to sign it.

Sex and Relationship Education: Finance

lord watson of invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government what funding they plan to allocate for (1) relationships and sex education, and (2) relationships education in schools.

lord agnew of oulton: We want all schools to deliver high quality teaching in this important area of the curriculum and many already do so. Our public consultation closed on 7 November 2018. We will use those findings to develop the right school support package to complement the content set out in the draft guidance.We expect to lay the regulations in spring 2019. We will publish the government’s response to the consultation and place a copy of the guidance in both Houses when the regulations are laid.

Music: Qualifications

lord clement-jones: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the consequences for mutual recognition of music qualifications if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

viscount younger of leckie: Music qualifications are not included in the EU Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive. The EU only has supporting competence in education and there is no EU law on the recognition of academic qualifications.

The Senior Deputy Speaker

House of Lords: Staff

lord norton of louth: To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker,  further to the Written Answer by the Chairman of Committees on 25 February 2009 (HL Deb, col 89W), how many staff of the House of Lords are employed exclusively or primarily on press and public relations; and whether he has made an assessment of how this figure now compares with the number of staff employed for the same purpose by (1) the House of Commons, and (2) the Scottish Parliament.

lord mcfall of alcluith: Both Houses and the Scottish Parliament organise their communications/press and public relations functions in different ways which makes it hard to compare figures directly. Consequently, the figures below simply compare the number of FTEs employed predominantly on dealing with press/media.   House of LordsHouse of CommonsScottish ParliamentFTEs employed on press/media5197 These figures do not include staff employed by either House or the Scottish Parliament on marketing, digital communications, public information, visitor services, education and engagement all of which contribute to their work on public relations. We do not hold these figures in respect of the House of Commons and Scottish Parliament.No assessment has been made of how these figures compare with each other.

Millbank House: Lighting

lord empey: To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what stepshe is taking to ensure that all of the lighting inMillbank Housecan be turned off.

lord laming: The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chairman of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. Problems have been experienced with the lighting system installed in 1 Millbank. It appears that the controlling software has been corrupted, resulting in some users being unable to turn on or turn off particular lighting units. Work is currently ongoing to resolve this issue.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Antisemitism: EU Countries

lord alton of liverpool: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights report on discrimination and hate crime against Jews in the EU; and what action they intend to take in response.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: The findings of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights report on discrimination and hate crime against Jews in the EU show clearly that we cannot be complacent in the fight against antisemitism, or hate crime of any form.The Government has shown its commitment to tackling antisemitism, as the first country to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism in 2016, and we remain alive to issues of concern in Jewish communities through our Cross-Government Working Group to Tackle Antisemitism.In the recently refreshed Hate Crime Action Plan, we have reinforced this by supporting work to develop counter-narratives to those that fuel antisemitism, and continuing to prioritise tackling antisemitism in our policy work.

Landlords

lord beecham: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many properties they estimateare owned by rogue landlords.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: The government does not hold data on the number of properties owned by rogue landlords. Councils are encouraged to maintain intelligence on the housing stock in their area. Government has recently made available £2 million in funding for innovative and targeted projects, including to help local authorities improve local intelligence on the quality of local private rented sector stock to ensure efficient and targeted enforcement operations.

Landlords

lord beecham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial supportthey have provided to local authorities to address the issue of rogue landlords.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: Government believes that the cost of enforcement should be borne by rogue landlords themselves and has introduced penalties of up to £30,000 for landlords who break the rules, and measures that force them to repay rent when they break the law. Local authorities are entitled to keep this money which is ring-fenced to fund their enforcement work.   Between 2011 and 2016 the government provided £12 million of enforcement funding to local authorities to tackle rogue landlords. In addition, we have recently made available £2 million in funding to local authorities to support their efforts to innovate, improve and share best practice in enforcement work against the minority of rogue landlords who make tenants’ lives a misery.

Housing Estates: Unfair Practices

baroness thornhill: To ask Her Majesty's Government why their consultation Tackling Unfair Practices In The Leasehold Market, published on 25 July 2017, did not include issues of unfair practice related to long-term flat leaseholders and freehold house owners who share maintenance expenditure for communal grounds, gardens and assets.

baroness thornhill: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to recognise freehold house owners who share maintenance expenditure for communal grounds, gardens and assets on estates comprising a mixture of leasehold flats and freehold houses as distinct from normal freeholders and leaseholders; and what steps they will take to give such freehold home owners access to (1) inexpensive alternative dispute resolution processes, and (2) full consumer protection rights.

baroness thornhill: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to provide freehold house owners legal rights equivalent to those of leaseholders, including legal rights to (1) manage blocks of houses, and (2) make an application to appoint a manager to the first-tier tribunal of the property chamber, where current and future property developments comprise a mixture of leasehold flats and freehold houses within communal grounds.

baroness thornhill: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to legislate for the independent regulation of estate managing agents to ensure that they are subject to consumer and financial services markets protection rights, laws and regulations; and what assessment they have made of the efficacy of current legislation regarding the self-regulation of managing agents.

baroness thornhill: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to prohibit landowners appointing related companies as estate managing agents; and what assessment they have made of the extent to which appointing such managing agents allows estates to be run without regard to providing value for money services to leaseholders and freehold house owners who share communal grounds maintenance and service expenditure.

baroness thornhill: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to abolish the current transfer rent charge deed arrangements and replace them with a modern commercial contract to provide for an equitable balance of obligations between communal grounds landowner, independent managing agent and freehold house owners consistent with current consumer protection legislation.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: As part of the response to the consultation Tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market the Government committed to legislate to ensure that freeholders who pay charges for the maintenance of communal areas and facilities on a private or mixed tenure estate can access equivalent rights as leaseholders to challenge their reasonableness.  We set out our proposed approach to implementing these measures in part 4 of the recent consultation, Implementing reforms to the leasehold system in England, which was published on 15 October this year.  We intend to create a new statutory regime for freeholders based on the leaseholder rights contained in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. This will ensure maintenance charges must be reasonably incurred and services provided are of an acceptable standardThere are no plans to separately recognise freeholders who pay charges for the maintenance of communal areas and facilities on a private or mixed tenure estate and those who do not. We will provide freeholders with the ability to challenge the reasonableness of the charges they are required to pay towards the maintenance of communal areas and facilities at the First-tier Tribunal. We are also considering whether freeholders should have a right to change the provider of maintenance services by applying to the tribunal for the appointment of a new manager.  The consultation has now closed, and my officials are now analysing the responses. The Government intends to bring forward legislation to implement the changes as soon as Parliamentary time allows.The Government has asked the Law Commission to review the existing Right to Manage legislation with a view to making the procedure simpler, quicker and more flexible. The Law Commission has been told about difficulties with managing shared property such as access roads and gardens used by other properties on the estate. They will therefore consider the qualifying criteria for Right to Manage applications to be extended to include freehold estates. The Law Commission will publish its consultation in January 2017On 12 October, the Government announced the formation of the Regulation of Property Agents Working Group, chaired by Lord Best. Its principal aim will be to advise the Government on a new regulatory approach to letting, managing and estate agentsThe Minister for Housing and Homelessness has asked the working group to look into whether fees and charges which affect both leaseholders and freeholders are justified, or whether they should be capped or banned.

National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service

baroness deech: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the £50 million they committed to the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre project has been spent so far; and how much has been raised for this project and connected purposes from other sources.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: From 2015/16 to 17 November 2018, the Government has spent £4.35 million on the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre programme.No additional funds have yet been raised from other sources. Plans are being progressed for a country-wide fundraising effort for the Memorial and Learning Centre. An independent charity is being set up to raise funds.

National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service

baroness deech: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the estimated cost of (1) building, and (2) running the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre; and how these costs will be met.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: The estimated cost of building the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is £102 million (including VAT). Future running costs are estimated to be around £5 - 6 million per annum.In 2015, the Government committed £50 million to the cost of establishing the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre. It is also the intention that further contributions towards the costs will come from a national fundraising effort. Options for providing future financial support are being explored and a sustainable long-term plan will be put in place.

Housing Associations

baroness kennedy of cradley: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many social homes they estimate were sold by housing associations during the last financial year.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: Between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018 a total of 13,086 sales of social stock including: social rented general needs, supported housing, intermediate rent and Affordable Rent and Low Cost Home Ownership (LCHO) were reported by Private Registered Provider through the Regulator of Social Housings Statistical Data Return (attached).https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistical-data-return-statistical-releases9,660 sales were to tenants through various home ownership schemes and 3,426 were sales for non-social housing use. 



Statistical releases
(PDF Document, 2.32 MB)

Housing Associations: Credit Rating

baroness kennedy of cradley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Standard & Poor’s indication that it will downgrade half the housing associations it rates if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: The Government’s policy remains to leave the EU with a deal.Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has not said that it will automatically downgrade housing associations in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal. The sensitivity analysis it published on 3 December was based on its own simulation of a ‘no deal’ Brexit, but we expect that its actual ratings will depend on how housing associations are affected (and how they respond) in practice. It is important to note that, even in S&P’s ‘no deal’ simulation, housing association ratings remain concentrated in its ‘A’ category.

Local Government: Kent

lord kennedy of southwark: To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they are providing to Kent County Council’s preparations for a no deal Brexit.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: The preparedness of Kent County Council and all of local government will be of fundamental importance in securing the country’s successful transition as we exit the EU.My department and its Resilience and Emergencies Division, Kent’s Local Resilience Forum, the Home Office and Border Force, the Department for Transport and Highways England, are all working together with Kent County Council to help make sure that the county is fully prepared.The Department for Transport and Highways England are key partners in the Kent Resilience Forum’s Fennel Group on transport management, providing support, resource and funding to ensure plans are appropriate for the possible scenarios that are faced. The Borders Delivery Group is working closely with the Kent Resilience Forum and local stakeholders to help ensure that actions being undertaken are coordinated.My department provides a range of support to all Local Authorities to help them prepare for Brexit under both ‘deal’ and ‘no deal’ scenarios. This includes the EU Exit Local Government Delivery Board where MHCLG’s Secretary of State and other ministers from across government engage with sector leaders.

Local Government Finance

lord kennedy of southwark: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relationship between the delivery of statutory services by local authorities and the financial sustainability of local authorities.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: As part of Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) responsibility for the overall sustainability of the local government finance system, the Department assesses the total amount of funding available to local government to deliver statutory responsibilities. The Department assesses this both top-down, looking at a macro level to see how much funding is in the system as a whole when set against cost drivers, demographics and opportunities for efficiencies; and bottom-up looking at financial indicators, overall capacity, leadership and governance for individual authorities. The Department’s overall judgement also considers whether there is flexibility in the system to respond to events, emergencies and to be able to provide the broader local leadership expected by communities.Each department is then responsible for establishing its own arrangements to ensure that services for which it has policy responsibility remain sustainable and that statutory responsibilities are being met. Local authorities are also independent of central Government, and are responsible for managing their financial budgets and for making spending decisions in line with their priority needs.

Ministry of Defence

Armoured Fighting Vehicles

earl attlee: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) Warrior, and (2) Challenger armoured fighting vehicles were reported by the UK under the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty in each of the last ten years.

earl howe: Equipment numbers in the scope of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty as an Official Statistics up to 1 January 2017 can be found here.https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/conventional-armed-forces-in-europe-equipment-holdings-statistics-indexFollowing a public consultation, a decision was taken to stop publishing these figures but as at 1 January 2018, in scope of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, there were 270 Warriors and 221 Challenger Main Battle Tanks.

Defence Equipment: Production

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to increase UK arms production.

earl howe: We review our requirements to address the particular threats faced by the UK when appropriate. Our policy is to compete wherever possible, whilst ensuring that UK companies have the greatest possible opportunity to bid into our programmes.

Minesweepers: Procurement

lord west of spithead: To ask Her Majesty's Government whetherreplacingHunt-class mine countermeasures vessels is included in their shipbuilding strategy.

earl howe: Yes, the 30 Year Shipbuilding Plan published with the National Shipbuilding Strategy in September 2017 includes the Mine countermeasures and Hydrographic Capability programme. This programme will develop options to meet our future Mine countermeasures and Hydrographic requirements.

Military Aircraft

lord stevens of ludgate: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 12 December (HL11984), what proportion of RAF Voyager aircraft flights have had as the principal passenger (1) a member of the Royal family, and (2) a current minister.

lord stevens of ludgate: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 12 December (HL11984), what categories of people can be the principal passenger on RAF Voyager aircraft flights.

earl howe: The RAF operates a fleet of nine Voyager aircraft. One of these, Voyager ZZ336 has been adapted to operate in the long-range VIP transport role in addition to its primary role of air to air refuelling.When operating in the VIP transport role, ZZ336 will carry Her Majesty The Queen or the Prime Minister. Additionally, on occasion other senior members of the Royal Family or Cabinet Ministers may travel on ZZ336 on official duties with the approval of either Her Majesty The Queen or the Office of the Prime Minister as appropriate.

Department for Work and Pensions

Christmas Bonus

baroness altmann: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the total annual cost to taxpayers of paying the annual £10 Christmas bonus to pensioners.

baroness buscombe: In 2017/18 a total of £126 million was paid to pensioners by the government and taxpayers for the pensioners Christmas bonus.

Universal Credit

lord hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will ensure that whena claimants Universal Credit is stopped because they have been admitted to hospital it is re-started without delay when they are discharged.

baroness buscombe: A single claimant who becomes a hospital in-patient will be treated as having a Limited Capability for Work. As such, they retain their entitlement to Universal Credit and as such there is no end to their Universal Credit claim, and no requirement for them to reclaim. If the hospitalised claimant is part of a couple, their joint claim will continue, so long as the claimant is or is expected to be discharged within six months. When one partner remains in hospital for longer than six months, we would expect the joint claim to end and an individual claim to be made. Where this is the case and a new claim is made, an advance will be available for up to 100 per cent of the standard allowance, ensuring financial support while a claim is completed.

Social Security Benefits: Refugees

baroness lister of burtersett: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 29 June (HL8775), when they will publish the findings of their monitoring of the supported handover process for refugees.

baroness buscombe: This was an internal evaluation and therefore we do not plan to formally publish the findings.However, we intend to write to the Work and Pensions Select Committee in the New Year detailing our findings and our response to the Committee will, as is usually the case, be placed in the public domain.

Cabinet Office

Telecommunications: EU Law

lord harris of haringey: To ask Her Majesty's Government whatsteps they are taking to implement Article 110 of the European Electronic Communications Code; and which (1) department, and (2) ministeris responsible for leading on its implementation.

lord young of cookham: The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is the lead department in relation to implementing the European Electronic Communications Code as a whole. Article 110 refers to a “Public warning system”. As a number of organisations have responsibility for warning and informing the public, the Minister for Implementation has asked the Cabinet Office to coordinate a review to establish whether there is a case for a national mobile alerting scheme, in addition to the systems already in place. Further information about the implementation of the Code and ministerial responsibilities will be made available in due course.

Social Policy

lord hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to tackle the social injustices identified in the statement made by the Prime Minister at the EU Council on 25 November.

lord young of cookham: The government has demonstrated its commitment to tackling social injustices through the Race Disparity Audit, the LGBT Action Plan, the Taylor Review and a number of other actions taken to confront issues such as gender inequality, poverty and low standards of education.

Ministers: Speeches

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the protocolsgoverning the redactionofparts of ministerial speeches that appear on Government departments'websites.

lord young of cookham: Individual government organisations publish speeches to GOV.UK. The Government Digital Service, part of Cabinet Office provides guidance on how speeches should be presented. This guidance is published in content design guidance on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-design/content-types#speech). GOV.UK supports both ‘draft text’ and ‘speaking notes’, neither of which are verbatim records of ministerial speeches.

Treasury

Taxation: Northern Ireland

lord foster of bath: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many representations they received during their consultation intoVAT, APD and Tourism in Northern Ireland; and of those, how many opposed a reduction in tourism VAT in Northern Ireland.

lord bates: The government published its response to the call for evidence on VAT, APD and Tourism in Northern Ireland at Budget 2018. As is set out in the response document, the government received over 80 individual responses to the call for evidence from a wide range of stakeholders, including trade organisations, public sector bodies, campaign groups and wider industry. Many of the respondents were in favour of a cut to VAT on tourism, particularly in Northern Ireland. In light of the legal restrictions on reform of VAT for Northern Ireland exclusively, and the fiscal implications of reform on a UK wide basis, the government will not be making a change to the rate of VAT on tourism related services at this time.

Tourism: VAT

lord foster of bath: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of limiting the reduction in tourism VAT to accommodation and attractions.

lord bates: The government explored the impact of VAT on the tourism industry in its recent call for evidence, and published its response at Budget 2018. A VAT reduction to accommodation and attractions has been estimated to cost the Exchequer £3 billion in the first year. This must be balanced by increased borrowing, reduced public spending or increased taxation elsewhere. In light of the fiscal implications of a UK wide reform, the government will not be making a change to VAT and tourism at this time.

British Nationals Abroad: France

lord jones of cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of ending freedom of movement after Brexit on those UK citizens who own property in France; and whether there will be any limit to the number of days each year those residents can spend in such property before incurring tax liabilities.

lord bates: UK nationals are bound and protected by France's domestic law when purchasing and selling property in France, in the same way that the law of UK protects property rights in the UK. The UK’s exit from the EU will not change this. All UK nationals resident in the EU before the end of the implementation period, 31 December 2020, will fall under the Citizens’ Rights part of the Withdrawal Agreement. This will protect their right to reside in France continuing to live their lives broadly as now. As at present, liability to taxation in France will depend on the nature of the income and French domestic tax law. The double taxation agreement between the UK and France protects UK citizens’ taxation rights, and will continue to apply on withdrawal.

Green Finance Institute

lord teverson: To ask Her Majesty's Government when the Green Finance Institute will be launched.

lord teverson: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Green Finance Institute will be a membership organisation; and if so, how organisations or individuals may apply for membership.

lord bates: The Government is working with the City of London Corporation to launch the Green Finance Institute next year. The details underpinning the management and membership structure are currently being worked out by the City of London Corporation. As part of this process, different operating models are being examined, including a membership model. We will endeavour to share progress on those points next year.

Overseas Trade: BRIC Countries

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen financial ties with (1) India, and (2) China, after Brexit.

lord bates: Over the last decade, the United Kingdom has developed strong financial links with both India and China through the Economic & Financial Dialogues held with each country. For example, agreements have been reached with China that have established London as the leading global centre for Renminbi trading, with a 39% share – more than Hong Kong and New York combined. And the City of London has played a key role in the development of the Indian masala bond market, with over US$5 billion raised through masala bonds on the London Stock Exchange to date. The Government is looking forward to holding the tenth edition of the dialogues with both India and China in 2019.

Multinational Companies: Taxation

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to collect more tax revenue from large multinational companies.

lord bates: The Government has taken significant steps, domestically and internationally, to ensure that multinationals pay the right amount of tax in the UK. The UK has led on initiating the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project and in delivering its recommendations into domestic legislation, for example the corporate interest restriction. In April 2015, the Government introduced the Diverted Profits Tax which seeks to counter contrived arrangements used to divert profits away from the UK. At Budget 2018, the Chancellor announced the introduction of the Digital Services Tax, intended to ensure that digital businesses pay UK tax which reflects the value they derive from UK users.

Financial Services

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) reports that Switzerland may be offered temporary access to EU stock markets, and (2) the implications that any decision on a "Swiss-style" equivalence arrangement could have on the UK financial sector after Brexit.

lord bates: The EU previously found Swiss stock exchanges equivalent under the MiFID II share trading obligation until 31 December 2018. Switzerland is an important financial partner for the UK and we support an extension of the equivalence decision for Swiss stock exchanges.The Government has successfully negotiated an agreement on the future relationship for financial services when we leave the EU that touches on the full spectrum of the UK’s White Paper position. The Political Declaration outlines that there should be initial decisions on equivalence by June 2020 and clear processes around the suspension and withdrawal of equivalence decisions in future. This should be supported by a legally-binding bilateral agreement for structured regulatory dialogue and consultation to ensure financial services are regulated compatibly, and that changes in legislation and the implications for trade are managed well.The Government’s long-term economic analysis sets out the impact of the UK’s White Paper position on the financial services sector.

Stamp Duty Land Tax

lord birt: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to review the impact of stamp duty on (1) housing mobility, and (2) the frequency of housing transactions; and whether they consider any useful lessons can be drawn from the experience of the Republic of Ireland in reducing stamp duty.

lord bates: The Government keeps all taxes under review and monitors a range of factors as part of that process. More broadly, SDLT continues to be an important source of government revenue, raising several billion pounds each year to help pay for the essential services the Government provides. As set out in HMRC’s April 2018 release on illustrative tax changes, a 1 percentage point reduction in the main rates of residential Stamp Duty Land Tax would cost an estimated £1.6 billion in 2019-20.

Service Charges: VAT

lord campbell-savours: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether VAT is payable on the onsite staff labour element of residential property service charges for properties managed by (1) resident self-management organisations, and (2) independent property services management companies.

lord bates: Service charges payable by residents to a landlord are exempt from VAT. Supplies of goods and services, including staff, by a property management company to a landlord or a “Right to Manage” company are normally subject to VAT. There is no difference between resident self-management organisations and independent property services management companies. In both cases the supplies to them by a property management company are subject to VAT.

Service Charges: VAT

lord campbell-savours: To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the estimated receipts to HM Treasury for 2018–19 from VAT charged on the onsite staff labour element of residential property service charges.

lord bates: HMRC does not hold information to base an estimate of the receipts to HM Treasury for 2018-19 from VAT charged on the onsite staff labour element of residential property service charges.

Non-domestic Rates

lord kennedy of southwark: To ask Her Majesty's Government, whether they are considering an alternative to business rates.

lord bates: The government keeps all taxes under review. The government completed a fundamental review of business rates in 2016. Respondents were in favour of retaining a property based tax, and agreed that business rates are easy to collect, difficult to avoid, stable, and clearly linked to local government spending. Alternative taxes were proposed, but there was no consensus on these options and respondents were clear that they each presented their own significant challenges. At Budget 2018 the government announced Our Plan for the High Street, which includes a new retail discount cutting eligible retailers’ business rates bills by a third for two years from April 2019.

Private Equity: Financial Markets

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Brexit uncertainty on the deal value of the UK private equity market.

lord bates: The Government is working to deliver legal certainty on the UK’s future relationship with the EU, recognising that uncertainty has had a short-term impact on the performance of the UK private equity market.The deal we have negotiated with the EU is the right deal for the country. And for financial services, the Political Declaration sets the foundations for a comprehensive future relationship with the EU that works in our mutual interest. It will be of greater depth than any other the EU currently has with a third country in financial services.The agreement on the full Political Declaration is a major step forward in providing clarity for the industry about a smooth transition to our new relationship.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Youth Sport Trust: Finance

lord moynihan: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding from lottery and central government sources has been given to the Youth Sports Trust in each of the last ten years.

lord ashton of hyde: The Youth Sport Trust has received both exchequer and lottery funding from Sport England over the past ten years. A breakdown is listed below, and the full awards list can be found on Sport England's website here: https://www.sportengland.org/media/13641/all-awards-april-2009-sept-2018.xlsxEvery investment Sport England makes is put through a rigorous assessment and approval process. Where investments are repeated Sport England endeavour to market test these offers every 3-4 years. Sport England investments in the Youth Sport Trust have been awarded either through open competition or were commissioned via a rigorous assessment and approval process including testing value for money.The Youth Sport Trust has also received grants or other funding from a number of different government departments during this period.YearSport England funding2009/103,560,6682010/114,275,6682011/1211,784,6372012/139,890,8252013/148,895,0002014/159,150,0002015/165,070,3062016/176,044,0572017/185,505,3832018/19 (to date)2,165,037Total66,341,581